Samsung SyncMaster S22A350H

It's been a while since we've tested a Samsung monitor, but the firm is back with this new SyncMaster S22A350H, a 21.5'' Full HD screen with a 2 ms TN panel, which it's billing as great value for money. 

Hardware and features: VGA and HDMI but that's it

We were somewhat taken aback when we first unpacked the S22A350H, and the design surprised us most of all.  It seems to be a cross between the SyncMaster P2270 and the T220, two former stars from Samsung.  That excellent pedigree hasn't stopped the firm from trimming down the inputs to the bare minimum with just one DVI port and one HDMI port.  Unfortunately for the S22A350H, those are the only thing it can fall back on to earn any points in this section.  It's completely lacking in any kind of accessories to back up the video inputs, and there's absolutely nothing in the audio department.

NB: A second version of this monitor, the Samsung SyncMaster S22A350B, is also available, and it drops the HDMI port in favour of DVI.  Depending on the options available on your graphics card, you might want to choose one version or the other, but we unfortunately can't promise that their performance is otherwise identical.

Responsiveness: overdrive under control

At least Samsung hasn't cut corners with overdrive, the filter that improves a monitor's perceived responsiveness.  Once you push it to its maximum setting, it brings the S22A350H's ghosting time down to an average of 7.5 ms.  That's a great result that will impress gamers in search of an affordable monitor.

Responsiveness
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They will also be pleased by the input lag, the period of time that elapses between a new frame being sent by the graphics card and its actual appearance on the display, is below the threshold of human perception.  It won't pose any problems for multiplayer gaming either.

Colours: good, but not better

If you want to get the best colour reproduction out of the monitor, then you'll need to adjust a few setting first.  Start by turning the 'black levels' down from medium to low.  Then change the colour space to 'cold 1' and the gamma to 'mode 2'.  Doing that helps to tone down a very problematic red tinge, to name just one of the problems with the default settings.


Once you've done that, the S22A350H's deltaE falls from 3.7 to 3.0, improving the colour reproduction somewhat, but more demanding users will want to try a calibration profile to get that down even further.  Left as it is, the colours are accurate enough for you to be able to shop online with confidence, as long as the photo of the new sweater you'd like to buy is the right colour to start with.

The contrast ratio is above average for a desktop monitor at 920:1.